MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH... A SPOOKY EXPERIENCE TOLD BY SANDRA HARRIS.

 

More Things in Heaven and Earth . . .

By Sandra Harris. ©

This memory always comes back to me when the nights are drawing in and the smell of coal fires fills the air. Eight winters ago, on a bright, cold Saturday afternoon, I sat down for coffee and a chat with some friends in a little café in Dublin 2. A few doors down, my two children, Reuben, ten years old at the time, and my adult daughter Lisa, were swapping Pokemon cards and gamers' gossip with a friend of Lisa's in a coffee-shop.

A couple of hours later, about 5pm, I looked up from my coffee and saw my children and their friend, a young male in his twenties, file past the café window one by one. Reuben first, bouncing along happily, fuelled by ADHD and the once-weekly Coca-Cola, then Lisa, more sedately, then the friend. They didn't look in and wave, though, even though they knew where I'd be.

“Oh, look, there go my kids,” I told my friends in surprise. “If they're heading home now, I suppose I'd better head off too, and get dinner started.”

I hurried home, a little surprised that Lisa hadn't texted me to say they were finishing up, like she normally would have. I put my key in the front door, fumbled for a light –– it was pitch dark by now –– and yelled 'Kids, it's me, I'm home!' Nothing. I was greeted only by the sound of dead silence and the darkest dark in every room but the one I was in.

Where were my kids? Had they gone off to have dinner somewhere with the friend, without telling me? Puzzled, I pulled my mobile out of my pocket and dialled Lisa's number. She answered on the second or third ring.

“Oh, hi, Mum,” she said animatedly. “How was your afternoon? We're getting ready to leave now. We don't want to miss the start of Strictly. Be home in a bit, okay?”

“Where are you?” I asked her, confused.

“We're still in the coffee-shop,” she said.

“Have you guys been in the same place all afternoon?”

“Where else would we have been? Okay, love you, see you in a minute!”

Then she was gone and I, very slowly, began to get the place ready for Saturday night, our favourite night of the week, with a take-away for dinner and Strictly and X Factor on the box. About fifteen minutes later, they burst in the door –– minus the friend, who'd gone off to get his bus –– and bombarded me with hugs and requests for chicken wraps and snack-boxes.

Lisa looked at me curiously, though. “What's up? You look a bit off.”

While Reuben commandeered the remote and switched the telly to BBC One, I told her exactly what had happened in their absence. Her eyes widened as we both came to the conclusion that I'd had some sort of psychic or supernatural experience.

Both of us have a keen interest in the horror genre –– films, books and music –– and might, therefore, be more open to the idea of this kind of phenomenon than other people, but it still shook me up a fair bit to realise that, however briefly and for whatever reason, I'd been allowed a tiny glimpse into the future.

The only experience I'd had prior to this that could even come close to being termed a supernatural one was the time I'd snapped a load of photographs of Lisa, years ago, back when she was in primary school. The photographs, taken on a disposable camera from Boots, turned out beautifully, for the most part; Lisa in the park, Lisa in her school uniform walking along a wall, Lisa feeding the ducks, Lisa in Captain America's eating a pizza, the usual 'proud parent' pictures.

I say 'for the most part' because one of the photos was a little strange. It was a shot of our sitting-room, with no Lisa in it, just the blurry shape of a fully-grown adult. It gave me the creeps. Shivering, I tore it in half immediately and put it in the bin.

Lisa and I have talked about this photograph over the years, and we both agree that there are probably all kinds of perfectly logical reasons why you might get a blurry, ectoplasmic-looking human outline on a photo, but still . . .

Do I believe in ghosts? I do, in the same way that I believe in God. Just because we can't see Him/Her/Other, doesn't mean that He/She/Other doesn't exist. The Universe still holds plenty of secrets we haven't managed to unlock yet. And, after all, as the fella says, there are more things in Heaven and Earth . . .